Fukushima Reactor “In Meltdown”
- Categories: Japan, News
- Date: Mar 12, 2011 17:00 JST
- Tags: Accidents, Bizarre, Earthquakes, Fukushima, Sendai, Technology
A nuclear reactor in tsunami crippled Fukushima prefecture is suspected of having entered meltdown, and radioactive material has been released into the atmosphere during the incident.
After the quake caused the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant’s Reactor #1 to automatically shut down as it was designed to, the emergency core cooling system apparently failed to engage as it not only lost main power, but also lost its backup diesel generator power due to the tsunami’s effects.
With no cooling possible and reactor temperature and pressure rising, Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency announced they suspected a reactor meltdown was in progress, and confirmed that radioactive material had already been released into the atmosphere during the incident.
They have reportedly since managed to begin lowering reactor pressure and bring the situation under control, though at the expense of further leakage of radioactive material.
People living within a 10km radius of the plant, some 50,000 in all, have been evacuated or put on evacuation standby, whilst army units have arrived at the plant to assist in controlling the reactor.
Japan’s nuclear plants provide a third of the nation’s electricity and are designed to be earthquake proof; their safety record has generally been good (although several scandals relating to fraudulent or lax inspection have helped call this into question), but after this incident it is likely operators will be facing some difficult questions.
Not least of which is the wisdom of operating a nuclear reactor on the literal edge of sea in an earthquake hotspot, and with a backup power supply which is evidently none too waterproof:
The event has already been likened to America’s 1979 Three Mile Island accident, in which a meltdown caused by poor design and a series of unlikely failures in combination gave rise to a small amount of radioactive leakage and a great deal of media panic.
Meanwhile, eastern Japan’s power grid is at breaking point – severely hit areas remain without power, but due to the disruption to power generation a major shortfall is anticipated, and the power company responsible is considering instituting a program of rolling 3 hour blackouts to compensate, Japan’s first.
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Doesn't look like chernobyl to me
Well the way the plant is designed its physically impossible for a chernobyl style event. But radioactive leakage is not so far fetched.
It can't exactly explode like Chernobyl was a an RBMK design reactor.
The RBMK design is inherently unstable in that it will just run up to higher and higher power if it looses coolant.
But still who was the idiot that though it was a good idea to put a power plant right on the edge of the ocean in an earth quake zone?
Really that is a poor location for any kind of power plant except for one that happens to use the tides to generate power.
Even a coal fired power plant would have made an enormous mess in this situation.
They usually store 2 to 3 weeks worth of coal at those and all of it would be in the ocean after a tsunami.
Well japan has 17 or so nuclear power plants all next to the ocean. There must be some reason for the location? Possible to use the water as a coolant?
Guys at YokosoNews says 1015 microsievert radiation Leak. Twice the amount we normaly recive a year
that looks preaty bad
Also, they have 8 more nuclear power plants in production or planning. They are seriously reliant on nuclear power.
Save on pumps or having to build a canal.
Yeah the technology is different a huge Chernobyl kind of explosion won't occur but the radiation can still be extremely dangerous.
One of the reasons some Nuclear Power Plants are located near oceans, it's because it is the last safety feature. And right now they're using it. Use the ocean water to cool the core.
Dunno if those 8 plants have or can do it, but if everything fails and they don't want a meltdown they can let the ocean in and flood the core. Of course it will prevent a meltdown but the flip-side is that it'll cause a unimaginable environmental disaster.
but the peril remains the same, the material goes to the atmosphere and is carried away by the wind. and what is worse is that since is at seaside there is high risk of the sea getting contaminated, and the pullution getting spread by winds, currents and even animals.
At Chernobyl, the reactor vessel lid blasted off and control and fuel rods burned and were blown apart.
At 3 Mile Island, gasses were vented, and the EPA found no contamination in plants, animals, or soil.
What's hilarious about your comment is that it just went Chernobyl status.
It's still not as bad as chernobyl, the explosion was nowhere near as big as the one in chernobyl thus the radioactive cloud did not go as high into the atmosphere limiting the range it'll cover. But this is still pretty much the worst nuclear accident after chernobyl...
"the explosion was nowhere near as big" OOOOh!
now that's a fantastic assessment!
(both were relatively small hydrogen explosions, for complete blockheads NOT nuclear fusion... burning hydrogen think Hindenburg without termite paint job.)
The big difference is not the explosions magnitude but what the explosion dispatches.
Imagine a cottage full of.. say cyanide.
Let's strap some fireworks under the roof and blow it up: Soviet Reactor accident.
Now imagine there's a thick box of concrete inside the cottage, not affected by the explosion... that's what we're dealing with at the moment.
Why won't Japan just sink into the ocean...
BWAHAHAHAHAA!!!!
go die in tsunami
WHy dont you go sink into the ocean?
damn troll gtfo.
glad to see some late night trolls here
Im in Japan right now, if I'll die to the tsunami the japs will die too. Tsunami FTW!!!!
Fuck you, you goddamn sick son of a bitch! I hope God and Satan castrate you!
There is no 'god". No "god" = no satan. But I believe there is a "god" since he's punishing the japs. God FTW!!!!
Then we shall whoop "god's" dumbass for creating earthquakes and tsunamis all over the world for thousands of years.
While you're "whooping" god, he's killing japs. YEHEY!!!
people like the above anon are why i gave up on humanity
Somebody sink this guy in Tokyo Bay please...
Its the end of the world... for the japs :)
Yew sick inhumane bastard D8
How can you watch ppl die and laugh at it?
Just shut up, kid. Why must whenever everyone's being serious and full of empathy in a thread/article, some bored 10yo kid always tend to think that they will sound badass for being insensitive doucebags..
The meltdown will be so catastrophic that the japs will wish they were nuked to death by the US! Earthquake FTW!
This isn't CNN. Shut up while the grown-ups are talking.
Yep, grown ups who are pedos and love loli's, so mature. Go fap to some child loser.
Why don't you just the fuck up and suck your god's dick bitch?
The japs are just asking for it since they're xenophobic and sinful, sucking my gods dick was so worth it!
Less talking and more sucking, child.
Quit being so edgy anon. If you're not trolling I'd say you were probably bi-polar or legally retarded.
Boohooo weeabos and pedos bawwing that their "sacred" country is being ass raped by nature. *eats popcorn*
Yeah... japanese certainly are xenophobic and sinful... "Here mexico, have a bigger fence." "I'm a guy who's to lazy to work so I take money from the government." Random other fake quotes about how a good portion of america is the most xenophobic/sinful in the world...
A building just blew up. Source: Fuji, NHK
Oh shit.
yeah i just saw that heres a link for ppl who wanna know.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/index.html
I was hoping that would not happen. But at least they were cautious beforehand with their evacuation.
Damn...hope this doesn't get any worst.
Yeah.. I wish they just die quickly.
Watching it on Asahi ustream
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/annnews
horrible news
It's a very real problem, one without any good remedy I suspect, but it's probably not a monocle-shattering catastrophe, though the media will surely make it out to be.
Worse case they could flood the reactor with boron this will poison the fuel and certainly will require the reactor to be torn down if it's to ever be put back in service.
I believe this reactor is a BWR design.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_water_reactor
They did destroy a crude LWR reactor back in the 50s and the contamination was minor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BORAX_experiments
I just watched a video about the tsunami, it's really made me shed a tear. I didn't knew you can have tears while LAUGHING SO HARD!! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!
Your homosexuality is a crime in your country
Agreed. Homosexuality is just.. strange, ugly, wrong and that guy is the perfect example.
If it makes someone a fag just because he's laughing at the suffering of the japs then I'm a fag. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
yeah-yeah you are fag and you proud of it...
at least now you understand that you are lower than Jpanese people you hate
Saaaayyy wwuuuttt?? Jpeniss is soooo small you need a microscope to fuck with it, thus the cleansing of the japs wakokokokok!!!